“This evocative study throws into stark relief the material conditions of authors who not only produced texts but also shepherded them through print infrastructures and into the hands of readers. Making contributions to African American literary history, book history, and print culture studies, Fugitive Texts encourages continued conversations about the material conditions of this literary history.”—Brigitte Fielder, author of Relative Races: Genealogies of Interracial Kinship in Nineteenth-Century America
Praise for the French edition:
“Offers a new approach to slave narratives.”—Études littéraires africaines
“The historical sweep Michaël Roy carries out here allows him to advance strong conclusions.”—Lectures
“Rethinking the place of slave narratives in the literary and political fields of the antebellum United States, revisiting presuppositions: these are the points which allow this rigorous, vigorous, and very well-written work to stand out from other analyses of these texts.”—Textes & Contexte
“Gives slave narratives a renewed breath of life. . . . Fugitive Texts significantly contributes to studies on slavery, abolition, gender, print culture, the antebellum era, and African American studies. . . . Treating narratives as an artifact to unveil new layers of how the formerly enslaved asserted themselves and made their voices ‘heard’ broadens our understanding of the antebellum period. It allows us to grasp how people came to form meanings for these printed volumes.”—H-Net Reviews